1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for remote billing and/or other reporting for services such as pay television or the like, and particularly, to a method and system for providing purchase capability for pay television services on a prepaid, tiered basis and/or on an impulse purchase basis.
2. State of the Prior Art
Services such as broadcast and cable pay television require the collection of payment for the services provided, and various techniques have been devised for charging subscribers and assuring collection for the services. The techniques range from charging a flat rate and physically disconnecting the service if the bill is not paid to more complex per program or "per view" billing techniques and code denial such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,254 issued to Robert S. Block and John R. Martin.
More recent attention has been focused on tiering methods of subscriber billing. In a tiered system, a subscriber pays a flat rate for each tier or category of programming desired. The eligibility of a subscriber to watch certain tiers or categories is prearranged and the subscriber is charged a flat fee for that eligibility regardless of how many or few programs within the prearranged tiers are viewed.
Thus, for example, the subscribers may prearrange to pay one flat fee to watch a certain category of programs such as sports, another flat fee to watch another category of programs, and so on. One subscriber might thus agree to pay the sum of three flat fees to be eligible to view all programs within three categories or "tiers" (e.g., a $35.00 total for a combination of one $10.00 category or tier, one $20.00 category or tier and one $5.00 category or tier) while another subscriber might select and be eligible to view only one category or tier.
Control of tiering in the above manner is typically provided by identifying programs as falling into one or more of a plurality of categories or tiers on the basis of codes transmitted with the program material and allowing only the viewing of the correct category or categories of programs at the subscriber location such as is shown in Block and Martin U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,884. Moreover, within each tier, programs may be further categorized on the basis of program content as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,884.
A tiered pay television billing system has the advantage of simplicity over most per program (per view) systems in that there is no need to store information regarding programs billed and to send this information to a central billing location. However, there is occasionally a need in a tiered or flat fee system to permit a subscriber to view a program not within the tier or tiers to which he has subscribed. For example, special events such as fights, plays, certain movies, etc. may not be included in the tiered program material or may be in a tier not subscribed to by a large groups of subscribers. Also, the suppliers of program material may require payment from the subscription television operator for each subscriber actually viewing the program. It thus may be desirable and perhaps necessary to include per view billing capability within a tiered or flat fee system or to operate entirely on a per view billing basis.
In one subscription television system now in operation, tiering and/or per program billing can be provided through the use of the techniques described in the above-referenced patents. While the combination embodied in this commercial system may provide the advantages of both tiering and per program billing, there is a requirement that the subscriber periodically transmit billing information to the central billing location (e.g., by telephone) so that a bill can be formulated on the basis of that information. Alternatively, the subscriber must pay well in advance so that proper decoding information can be transmitted to the subscriber, e.g. over-the-air or by mail, cable or telephone, in advance of the scheduled program airing.